Carl Ludwig
Rasmussen, while in his first job in Portland working on a
riveting crew building the Broadway Bridge, looked down at the
Willamette River and observed that it was so clear he could see
the bottom. That was in 1908. He had come to Northwest that year
from Canada where he had immigrated from Copenhagen five years
earlier.

Desirous of
having a business of his own, Rasmussen opened a blacksmith shop
at northwest 17th and Raleigh Streets later that same year, 1908,
and managed it until he died in 1951 at the age of sixty-seven.

After the first
World War, in 1918, he took a night class in auto repairing at
Benson Polytechnic School, and for ten years thereafter he
specialized in making truck parts, metal parts for boats, and
slings for loading and unloading ships' cargo.

Repairing wooden
wheels with metal rims became another common task.

In 1911
Rasmussen married Anna Marie Splidsboel, a young lady of Danish
descent, who had come West from Chicago with her parents when
only one year old. Her father, Andreas Splidsboel, started a
bakery called Consumers Bakery and Grocery , located at 24th and
Nikolai Streets. His nephew, Chris Splidsboel, worked in the
bakery when he first came to Portland from Denmark.

The Splidsboel
family lived next to the bakery for a time, quite close to the
Rasmussen family. This area of Portland was called Slabtown, so
named because the sawmill was located there and slab sidings
sawed from the logs were used to build houses for the sawmill
workers. The Rasmussen's later moved to 65th and Sandy in the
Rose City area of Portland. Carl and Anna Marie Rasmussen had two
children: Carl Andrew, born in 1913, and Dorothy, born in 1917.

Son Carl worked
in the research and development division of the Western Pine
Association for the Western States, finding new ways to season
lumber and to increase its production. He was Commodore of the
Portland Yacht Club in 1956. Now retired, he and his wife live in
King City in Tigard, Oregon. They have two daughters, Suzanne and
Linda, both interested in everything Danish.

The senior Carl
Rasmussen had several hobbies or pastimes. He enjoyed fishing,
riding in an open touring car, and playing cards every Wednesday
evening with friends in Dania. He was an active participant in
that organization, and a member of the Danish Brotherhood Lodge,
as well.